Archive for May, 2006

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Internet Marketing – Achieve Truly Spectacular Success! Be An Internet Marketing Cockroach!

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

As human beings and Internet marketers, we can learn some important life and business lessons from nature’s creatures. Imparticularly, the cockroach.

Without question, cockroaches are truly one of nature’s most amazing and enduring creatures. How amazing? Read on.

Cockroaches are thought to have originated 0ver 280 million
years ago (during the Carboniferous era).

The world’s largest roach (which lives in South America) is
six inches long with a one-foot wingspan.

Cockroaches bleed white blood.

Cockroaches have 6 hairy legs. The tiny hairs found on each
leg gives them their sense of touch.

Cockroaches can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes and
spend about 75 percent of the time just resting.

There are an estimated 5,000 species of cockroaches
worldwide.

Some female cockroaches mate once and are pregnant for the
rest of their lives.

You’ve no doubt heard the legend of the headless cockroach.
Well, in this case, the legend also happens to be fact. A
cockroach can live a week without its head. The roach only
dies because without a mouth, it can’t drink water and dies
of thirst.

Cockroaches can run up to three miles in an hour.

Young cockroaches need only a crack as thin as a dime
(about .5mm wide) to crawl into. Adult males can squeeze
into a space of 1.6mm or the thickness of a quarter.
Pregnant females need the most space to hide: 4.5mm or a
space as tall as two stacked nickels.

A cockroach’s heart is nothing but a simple tube with
valves. The tube can pump blood backwards and forwards in
the insect. The heart can even stop moving without harming
the roach.

Roaches can live without food for a month, but will only
survive a week without water.

Roaches will eat just about anything–including finger nail
clippings, bread crumbs, food scraps off of dirty dishes–
even labels on cans, including the glue.

Most species of roaches live in the tropics. But roaches
live all over the world, including the North and South
Poles. Pest cockroachs can withstand temperatures as cold as
32F (0C), but will die if the temperature goes much below
that. In extremely cold places, however, they survive by
moving in with humans.

Cockroaches can climb walls because they are equipped with a
set of little claws on their feet designed for that very
purpose.

Crushed cockroaches can be applied to a stinging wound to
help relieve the pain.

Roaches use their feelers, or antennae as noses. Their sense
of smell is so great, they recognize family and friends by
their distinctive odors.

Female roaches attract male roaches by producing pheromones.
Pheromones are chemicals that attract male roaches like a
magnet and drives them wild.

Those are some pretty amazing facts, aren’t they?

So, what’s the point of this article? Simple. If you want to achieve truly spectacular success, be an Internet marketing cockroach! That means, take full advantage of your environment and opportunities, be remarkably adaptable and don’t let anything stand in the way of achieving your goals!

Those are truly valuable traits that can be applied to both our personal and business lives!


About the author:

Marketing Basics specializes in writing articles that teach,
explain and define basic marketing principles and
techniques. http://marketingbasics.blogspot.com/

Looking for a great home business opportunity? Run your own high-profit classified ad website! http://snipurl.com/bwdd

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Marketing – The Internet Marketing Gurus Are Angry

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

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Copyright ? Robbie Fanucchi http://www.RJFanucchi.com

Why are the gurus angry? Because a certain ‘Home Biz Guy’ got it in his head to give away an e-book he could easily sell for over a hundred dollars a copy.

We’ve all seen it before: the experts in internet marketing charging an arm and a leg for an e-book that would sell for twenty-five dollars in print form. Oh well, I can’t really cast stones at e-capitalism. We are all hoping to benefit from it. It is why we entered the online business arena.

However, it’s nice to see someone offering a valuable freebie. Stone Evans’ “Dotcomology” is crammed with juicy tidbits of internet marketing. He covers enough areas in his three-hundred page book that anyone who applies his strategies will eventually see some success.

“Dotcomology” covers creating a website, SEO strategies, pay per click advertising, reciprocal links, affiliate marketing, auto-responders, opt-in lists, viral marketing, creating e-books, joint ventures and much more.

You can see why many of the IM gurus are angry. This is the same information they are using to pad their pockets. So why is Stone Evans doing this? Who knows? Perhaps he is just tired of seeing people fail at this business. Whatever his reasons, we can all benefit from his knowledge in the internet marketing realm.

See for yourself why so many people are reading “Dotcomology”. You can get a free copy by clicking on the link provided below.

NOTE: You have complete permission to reprint this article with your newsletter or website as long as you keep the article intact, including the author’s resource box. Thanks!

About the Author

Robbie Fanucchi is a member of IAHBE(International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs). His website is dedicated to finding the best home based business ideas and opportunities:

http://www.RJFanucchi.com

http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-11327/dotcomology.html

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Direct Marketing – How Copywriters Can Bounce Back After a Client Messes Up a Direct Marketing Campaign

Monday, May 29th, 2006

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Recently a copywriter named Chris asked me what she should do when a direct marketing campaign fails. “How do you bounce back in your freelance business after a client royally screws up a DM campaign?”

The short answer is that no copywriter wins all the time. The law of averages in the business of marketing won’t support it.

Many factors must combine properly to make a winning campaign, and the degree of your success will depend on the degree to which EACH element is “right on.”

Marketers depend on the copywriter to guide them in the creation of the campaign. So the copywriter should first have her pulse on the two most important aspects of any mailing:

1. The list 2. The offer

The list is the most important element of any campaign because if there’s anything wrong with it (poorly targeted, old and dirty, etc.), it won’t matter how great your offer is or how masterful your copywriting. The campaign will probably do poorly, or fail.

The offer is the second most important element of a direct response campaign. An expert copywriter will make sure the offer is extremely appealing to the target audience before he ever starts copy. In fact, there are many copywriters (myself included), who consider exceptional offer development to be the “secret weapon” behind their winning campaigns.

So setting yourself up for success is the number one rule for creating winners.

But of course, that’s only half the battle. Chris said that the venerable Dan Kennedy once told her face-to-face that if anyone was going to screw up a direct marketing campaign, it’s the client.

And while one can’t lay 100 percent of the blame on the client all of the time, clients do have a way of monkey-wrenching the best laid plans.

In my opinion, many direct response campaigns fall short of their potential because the marketing team is constrained by time and/or budget. Often times they agree with the copywriter’s vision for the campaign, but substitute poor offers for good offers, or push copy too fast, or other types of “corner cutting” to meet time or money pressures.

Other less obvious elements may be at play as well. Years ago when I was senior writer for Rosen/Brown Direct, a well-known direct response agency, we were baffled by a syndrome that emerged.

Our unique selling proposition what that we could get the client blockbuster response rates. On that basis we won lots of clients. But when it came time to execute their campaigns, the marketing directors would often put roadblocks in the way of our success. Richard Rosen and I were puzzled as to why.

Years later Richard told me he’d figured it out: Everyone wants high response rates initially, but if you get high response rates, it raises the bar for future campaigns.

It was his hypothesis that ultimately, the marketing director wanted good but not phenomenal success. This would maintain their job security without setting them up for super-high expectations in future campaigns.

What does this all means to the copywriter who has suffered a failed campaign?

First, all copywriters suffer failed campaigns. (You just don’t want it to become the norm.) In fact, if you’re doing it right, you’re encouraging your client to test lists, offers, headlines, and more. Sometimes these tests will fail.

When I promote myself I pretty much offer “guaranteed” success. But that’s only if the client allows me to run the whole show…and that means having a hand in list selection, and in creating the all-important offer.

These are the two most important elements of a direct response campaign…unless you’re a mature marketer who’s exhausted the available lists to test and tested enough offers to know what works best.

Then, and only then, is copy the sole star of the show. So when making promises, make sure you base your expected success on the confidence you have in the three crucial elements of any on- or offline mail campaign: the list, the offer, and the copy, in that order.

But if everything falls apart, how do you pick up the pieces?

In agencies, and more sophisticated marketing departments, a meeting will sometimes be called to discuss the results of a campaign. If anyone ever tells you there will be a “post-mortem,” that’s what they’re talking about. It’s a negative term, for sure, and I’ll be glad when it’s no longer trendy marketing language as I think it implies an expected negative result.

If the client doesn’t call a post-mortem, and the results were dismal, then I’ll call a meeting to go over every element of the campaign, and offer a write up as to why I think the campaign failed.

This is a very smart step to take, and for lots of reasons. First, you may uncover a “buried” influence. I recall one client who came to me and said “We don’t want any response, we just want them to know we exist.” To which I replied, “If we’re making the effort, why not see what we can get? It doesn’t cost us anything more.”

When the campaign pulled a 0.7% response rate, the marketing director was disappointed. But when I reviewed the campaign from beginning to end and wrote up my analysis, we were all reminded that the number one objective of the campaign was awareness; any response would be gravy. On that basis, the campaign was then seen as a success.

A post-mortem analysis will uncover weak offers, reveal poor targeting, and sometimes lead to market intelligence you can use in subsequent campaigns. For instance, a back-end analysis of a recent campaign for the client I just spoke about revealed that the extra cost of personalizing does NOT pay off for a segment of their target audience.

By calling a post-mortem and by offering a written analysis of the campaign results, you show your client that you’re not a fly-by-nighter. That you believe in your work. And that you’re still their “partner.”

I’ve found that the client is usually willing to work with you to make the next campaign more successful, by learning from past mistakes. Slinking away with your tail between your legs tells them that you were in it only for the paycheck.

Stand up to the situation and see what you (and your client) can gain from it. Not only is it the professional thing to do, but it can turn a failure into a learning experience, and provide value for future campaigns.

About the Author

Master copywriter and coach Chris Marlow publishes a free ezine for copywriters who want to quickly build a profitable business. Visit:

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Internet Marketing – Internet Marketing Solution – Content, Content, Content

Monday, May 29th, 2006

If you???re looking for the number one, hot Internet marketing solution that will propel your website to the number one spot on the most popular search engines you have a long search ahead of you. The truth is that there really isn???t one technique that will accomplish such a major feat for you. The most successful and popular websites employ a number of techniques to garner that longed for spot. That being said, however; you should know that not all techniques are equal. Some techniques will definitely get you more results than others and the granddaddy of them all is content.

You may have heard this term bandied about and wondered what exactly it is; especially if you???re new to the Internet marketing game. In short, content is the bulk of information that is placed on your site; it is the useful, informational and entertaining information that has one sole purpose. Content is the Internet marketing solution that will drive customers to your site in hordes, if done correctly.

So, you might be asking; how is content done correctly? Good content involves a number of articles that are fresh, unique and provide information that is of value to your targeted audience. It needs to be updated regularly and should be professionally written. That means no typos, no grammar and spelling mistakes. For this Internet marketing solution to be successful, your site???s content should also be easy to read and laid out in a way that allows important information to ???leap??? off the page. Oh, and as if that???s not enough; you need to know which keywords to place in your content articles and where to place them. That all sounds easy enough, right?

There are a number of ways you can obtain content for your website. Some people try the good old cut and paste method of ???borrowing??? information from other sites; however this can get you in trouble for a couple of reasons. First, that information is probably copyrighted and if you???re caught you???ll end up in major trouble. Second, one of the rules of good content is that should be original and unique. That means your target audience does not want to see the same information on your site that they just viewed on another site.

Free content is available through a number of means on the Internet, but again; you???re back to trying to get original content. If you jumped at the chance for free web content, how many other people do you think did as well? If you are personally able to write in a professional, coherent and interesting manner, then this may be a good Internet marketing solution. If not, however; your best bet is going to be either persuading a family member or friend who can do it for you or else hire a professional writer. Yes, it costs money to do that. Remember the old adage? It takes money to make money.

About the author:

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Jack Elmy’s web site provides information on the basics of creating business plans that get results and will help you succeed in your business, visit: http://www.900-business-plans.com

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You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your e-book or on your web site, free of charge, so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.

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Marketing – RSS the Future of Internet Marketing? Part 2of 4

Sunday, May 28th, 2006

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RSS the Future of Internet Marketing? Part 2of4 By James McIntosh

Before knowing about the latest trendsetter RSS, let us discuss in length about the current demerits faced by the organizations planning to offer e-mails or e-newsletters to their subscribers. The organizations are meeting a great challenge to catch the attention of their subscribers.

The users have second thoughts signing up, due to the junk mails flooding their mailboxes. Even if they do sign in, the question of whether these mails draw their attention pops up! With the technology world pacing through unimaginable changes each and every minute, one needs to know how precious time is. Users definitely may not want to even bother to open such mails, lest to read it.

With spam gaining momentum by the day, the question of mere survival of the organizations’ mass deletion system hovers as a big challenge.

Now, people or precisely, organizations, resort to better, flexible methods of communications. Obviously, with the enormous growth in technology, especially in the Internet, there is a need to switch over to more interesting ways of communicating to the subscribers. Especially companies with a smaller advertising budget need to be innovative in their ways of communication through web. This is where ‘push-based’ communications methods such as RSS come in.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. It can be simply explained as a file containing the latest headlines, which can be published and subscribed to easily. Major players such as Macromedia, Macromedia, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and IDC have begun going in for RSS, not for just effective communication, but also for augmenting visibility of their websites, thus increasing traffic to their sites. End of the day, these organizations update their customers without worrying about ‘mass deletion’!

Before going in depth about Really Simple Syndication, knowing what RSS is will give us a vivid picture of this new technology. We can define RSS more technically as a lightweight, topical, metadata and syndication format. Let us look into each feature to get a vivid picture:

? Lightweight: This is a very important feature looked upon by many users as one of the reasons to prefer RSS tool. RSS is very small, in the sense – it requires less space, usually less than a hundred kilobytes of space. RSS files are XML documents, which can be written using any text editor (Word, notepad, emacs, vi etc) very easily.

? Topical: RSS highlights what you think is important on your page and that would be the contents seen by the other readers. For example, if you are a news organization, you may want to focus on the latest headlines, if you are a businessperson you may want to showcase your products or if you are a publisher you may want to throw light on your latest book releases.

? Metadata: Metadata is the information about your data. You can embed details about your data in your RSS file. For example, who wrote the article you are highlighting or how often your RSS file will be read to see if you have added any information.

? Syndication: As we have already seen that it is to present a snapshot, in a specified formatted file, of what you consider most important about your site at the moment.

As a provider, the first step is to collect the latest news, announcements or any information you wish to give subscribers. Then you create ‘RSS document’, a summary of the collected information. The next step is to register the document with an RSS publisher. Once it is registered, anyone using an RSS reader can get it from the publisher or directly from your site.

About the Author

James McIntosh is the publisher of The Concept Development Newsletter http://www.conceptdevelopmentllc.com James has been a home based business development consultant for 23 years help his clients start and grow their businesses. This article may be reprinted with this resource box unchanged.

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Internet Marketing – Internet Marketing for Small Businesses – A Guide in Plain English

Saturday, May 27th, 2006

Have you ever been intimidated at the convoluted, jargon-ridden information about Internet marketing available on the Net? What exactly is search engine optimization anyway, and can I do it myself?

Often it results in many companies becoming confused and therefore reluctant to put into practice what would be a valuable and simple business resource when understood and applied correctly.

Market Researcher and Internet marketing consultant, Gordon Goodfellow, who is also an English literature graduate, decided it was time for a change. Part of this desire to make web marketing more accessible was due to his past experience as a teacher.

“I was sick of all the gobbledygook that surrounds web site promotion and web marketing, even today,” he explains. “Website marketing isn’t rocket science and should not be presented as such. Everyone should have access to affordable website promotion.”

Having spent four years researching and assessing the best way of getting an effective message across on the Internet, he began to design a basic introduction to Internet marketing. The result of this hard work is Applied Web Marketing. AWM is a comprehensive beginners guide to marketing on the Internet, covering everything from domain names, through search engine optimisation, search engine ranking and search engine promotion, to e-commerce and merchant accounts (and their alternatives), all refreshingly written in plain English.

The guide also has useful links to many resources, and to the submission pages of the major search engines and directories, making it an unmissable companion to those seeking affordable Internet promotion for their own web sites.

The reaction to this new venture has been swift and positive. In the few months Applied Web Marketing has been available online, many influential names have given their approval and thanks. Both the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and Goodfellow’s local MP have been in contact. Stephen Timms MP, Minister for E-Commerce, wrote that “it looks like a very useful resource…I wish you well with this very interesting and relevant offering.”

Applied Web Marketing is free to access at www.Applied-Web-Marketing.com and is also downloadable as a free ebook from the site.

About The Author

Gordon Goodfellow has worked in the market research industry for many years and is a professional Internet marketing consultant and practitioner. You may freely use this article as long as you include the following active link. http://www.applied-web-marketing.com

admin@applied-web-marketing.com

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Direct Marketing – Powerful Direct Marketing Numbers

Friday, May 26th, 2006

Powerful Direct Marketing Numbers

by: Larry Brophy

Direct Marketing works!

Why? It works because it’s personal. It carries a message, answers questions and gets orders. Direct Response Marketing works because it is “conversation in writing”.

It works because, no matter what you have heard, read or believe … most people look forward to personal communication. They like being treated as a person – as an individual.

So, if Direct Response Marketing is so powerful, how can we as marketers use it effectively? To keep the business we have … to find new business?

As with most disciplines, these powerful “Direct Marketing Numbers” are common sense. Here’s a list of a few “Numbers” to make your Direct Response Marketing work for you:

60 – 30 – 10

A full 60% of your Direct Marketing success is making certain your message gets to the person who can buy what you have to sell. It’s very easy for the wrong person to say “no”.

An offer will be 30% of your Direct Marketing success.

What’s an offer? It is a reason for your prospect to do business with you. It’s the urge to action. It’s an incentive to get your audience to raise their hand. To indicate a willingness to talk with you. It’s a reason to respond.

The 10% remaining is creative. Not unimportant … certainly less important. And although it is the fun part of marketing – without a clearly identified audience and a sound offer – your creative has little chance of giving you a winner.

Now, once you’ve clearly identified your marketplace and put together an offer of interest – how DO you get your Direct Marketing message read, heard, seen, understood and acted upon?

A few more “Powerful Numbers”

Lucky 13

Write your message for a 13 year old reading level.

Television news, the morning newspaper and by far the majority of our conversation is at a 13 year old reading level.

Exceptions? Sure. The Wall Street Journal is written at a 17 year reading level.

11

Keep your opening paragraph to 11 words or less.

Yes, I did say paragraph!

Why? Because, by opening quickly you slip your reader into your full message. Make your letter, your brochure, the print advertisement – everything you write – easy to read. A quick beginning helps.

14

All your sentences should average 14 words or less.

The best way to write short: use a period. Yes, every so often insert the “dot”. It works. And it will help you get read.

1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

Use words of 5 letters or less. About 70% of all your words should be 5 letter words, or less.

Why? Because they are easy to read – easy to understand. Your message will be quickly absorbed.

The 500 most common words in English have 13,000 meanings. No wonder we have trouble with basic communication. One answer is to go short. It pays with results.

7

Keep ALL paragraphs to a maximum of 7 lines. Never more than 7…and sometimes just 1 or 2. i.e., short paragraphs.

Again, why? Because a large block of copy looks tough, even if it is not. The tactic of short makes your message look more inviting.

1

A postscript (P.S.) is mandatory in every direct mail letter. Because 4 of 5 of your readers will read the P.S. first … before they read anything else in your letter.

5

Indent every paragraph 5 spaces.

This “Number” is really physiology – not marketing. Our eyes pull us “in” when we see indents. They pull us to a point – and while we’re there, we read. It works. Indent all paragraphs.

On the other side of the paragraph – the right side – use the ragged right design. Do not justify margins! Do not proportionally space your sentences. Ragged right increases readership.

1/2

Whenever you go to a second page in a letter – split the last sentence in half.

Begin it at the bottom of the first page…end it at the top of the next page. Why? To pull-l-l-l the reader with you. “Make” them turn the page. Keep them reading.

The same tactic works in anything printed with columns. Such as brochures, reply forms, print ads…anything. Split the last sentence…the last paragraph in two. And move the reader to the next column.

481

Be specific. The number 481 is much more specific – and much more believable! – than saying “almost 500″.

Odd numbers get more attention than even. Use 3 – 5 – 7 – 9 and you are more likely to be noticed. A list of 11 is better than a list of 10. 99 or 101 ideas is better than an even 100.

One more thing on numbers; use the number – not the word. As I have done in this article. The number 3 or 7 is easier to see, read and understand than the word three or seven.

30

Offers with a date work to get more action – more response. Try a Limited Time Offer.

Good for only 30 days…or better yet, “This offer good only until August 31″ gets action. Test making your offer a Limited Time Offer. It can increase your response.

There are many more “Powerful Numbers” in Direct Marketing. This list will get you going to make your mail, your print, your collateral materials – all your written communication – just that much better. Good writing!

About The Author

Larry Brophy has helped thousands of businesses find more buyers for their products and services the past 20+ years. He’s the resident webmaster at: http://findmorebuyers.com, your TOP source of targeted sales leads.

Read additional marketing articles by Larry Brophy at http://findmorebuyers.com/page.cfm/15

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Marketing – Marketing Numbers UK

Friday, May 26th, 2006

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“Marketing Numbers UK Marketing numbers, already prolific in the United States, are quickly gaining popularity in the UK. They are emerging as a powerful business tool that many organisations should not be without. These are special telephone numbers which may be used to eliminate geographical barriers, generate revenue and strengthen brand presence.

The major advantage for businesses of marketing numbers is that they are generally supplied with powerful number translation services such as voice and fax to email, time of day routing, call and fax broadcast, follow me or hunt group facilities and other valuable call handling functionality. Information about inbound calls (date, time, geographical area, duration) provides valuable marketing information to the business.

Freephone Numbers Freephone numbers – typically with the 0800 prefix – are free of charge to callers within UK and to callers on some mobile networks. The charges of the call are borne by the organisation using the phone number, but can be as little as 2p per minute. Research has demonstrated that 61% of UK callers are more likely to call these numbers than standard charge numbers. 0800 marketing numbers offer an excellent opportunity for businesses to dramatically improve lead generation.

0845 Numbers These have been described as local rate, but were actually introduced as “”LoCall”" numbers. Customers can call them from anywhere in the UK for just 3.95p per minute during the day and 1p per minute in the evenings and at weekends. Though some operators charge the business for inbound calls received on its 0845 marketing number, Numberstore offers 0845 marketing numbers with no ongoing line rental or call charges – a compelling reason for Internet Service Providers and companies to make themselves more accessible to their subscribers and customers throughout the UK.

0870 Numbers 0870 marketing numbers, historically referred to as “”national rate numbers”", offer all the advantages of 0845 numbers, though calls are charged at slightly higher rates. This means that businesses may also share in the revenue earned by the operators from their inbound calls.

Premium Rate Numbers While these are not necessarily marketing numbers, premium rate numbers (090), are an excellent option for technical support, chat lines, phone-ins and competitions. The market for these services alone is valued at around ?2 billion in the UK. Here the charges for the call are borne totally by the caller while the revenue generated from the call is split between the telephone operator and the business receiving the phone calls.

Alpha-numeric Numbers Any of the ranges described above may be used to generate memorable alpha-numeric numbers – eg 0905 057 HELP for a business support number or 0905 057 CHAT for a chatline.

To find out more about marketing numbers, visit www.numberstore.com which offers a wide range of tariffs and numbers, instant set up and online number routing services.

”

About the Author

I write articles for www.numberstore.com. Numberstore is a trading name of Zimo Communications Limited, a UK digital communications company established with quality of service as its principal objective.

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Internet Marketing – Internet Marketing Idea: Publish an Ezine

Wednesday, May 24th, 2006

Chances are if you surf the net much you have noticed that almost every website offers a free newsletter or ezine in some form or other. Wonder why someone would go to so much trouble to publish a newsletter and offer it for free? The answer is because it is a brilliant Internet marketing idea. True, it does take some work to publish a quality ezine, however the benefits you can reap in sales for your main product or service is worth the time and effort.

What makes writing and publishing an ezine such a good Internet marketing idea is that it allows you to have direct contact with your customers and readers on a continuing basis. Even if they forget to visit your site again (and lets face it; with all of the work and family demands placed on all of us, no matter how good your site is, this is a possibility) if they are subscribed to your ezine you have a golden opportunity to remind them why your site is fantastic. Secondly, when done tastefully, it gives you a chance to earn a little extra through advertising. Finally, there are relatively few other ways you can build a relationship with your sites visitors. And as all good salespeople know, building a good rapport with your customer is key to making the sale.

There are a few golden rules you should understand before hurrying to write your first edition, however. While you may be able to convince a visitor to sign up for an ezine when they visit your site, your job as a publisher doesnt stop there. To get them to actually open it every time it lands their inbox and not hit the delete key, you need to develop a plan. At a minimum, keep these tips in mind in order for an ezine Internet marketing idea to be successful:

Take the time to include informative, interesting and entertaining content for your ezine. Give the reader a reason to want to read your newsletter and better yet, recommend it to others!

Reassure your readers. Always, always include a privacy statement and give them an opportunity to unsubscribe. Hopefully, if you provide relevant, original information youll never have to worry about this; but doing so shows you care about your reader and that you produce quality material.

Once you decide to publish an ezine, be consistent about it. If you tell your readers its a weekly publication, make sure it comes out weekly no matter what. Failing to abide by this rule tells your reader youre unreliable and untrustworthy.

Finally, remember that although writing and publishing an ezine is a fantastic Internet marketing idea, it is also a chance for you to have some fun and really expand your skills. Be creative and have fun!

About The Author

Jack Elmy’s web site provides information on the basics of creating business plans that get results and will help you succeed in your business, visit: http://www.900-business-plans.com

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your e-book or on your web site, free of charge, so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.

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Marketing – Setting up your web pages for search engine marketing success

Wednesday, May 24th, 2006

When planning the placement and positioning of keywords and phrases in your web site you need to have a good understanding of the part these words play in search engine optimization. Search engines take keywords and phrases collected at the time they spider web sites, and use them in their algorithms that help determine how to rank pages for relevancy.

The two most important places to put keywords or phrases are in the title tags (), located at the top of Web pages, and in the text that is visible (i.e., between the body text content tags) on the pages. Text located between the tags that is bolded, in larger fonts, or found in headings, links, or toward the top of a page is weighted more heavily than it was in the past. A more detailed explanation follows;

Title Tags

Title tags ( tags. The number of characters that are shown in search engine results varies by search engine, which means you should have your most important words and phrases at the beginning of the title tag.

  • The total number of characters in a title tag should be limited to around 100, with most title tags being shorter, at approximately 60-80 characters. If possible, have your most important keywords as the first 3 or 4 words in your title tag. Try to place related keywords close together, because search engines also measure word proximity when considering a Web page’s relevancy to the search terms entered.
  • Remove any extraneous, filler words (e.g., a, the, that) – only your most important keywords and/or phrases should be placed in your title tags. Unless your domain or company name contains relevant keywords in it, or is very well-known, or you are trying to build the branding of your firm’s name on the Internet, it is best not to place your company or domain name in the title tags.
  • If you do want to place your company or domain name in a title tag, place it at the end, unless your branding is very strong, and you feel confident most people will look for your company by name. Depending on how you think your target audience will compose their search queries, you may want to include singular and plural versions of keywords in your title tags.
  • Remember that the keywords and phrases in your title tags will be displayed in the browser title bar; you should craft a set of keywords that, when put together, create coherent rather than random phrases or word combinations. Your title should be interesting enough to get users to want to visit your Web site after seeing it listed. It does you no good to be ranked high in search result listings if people do not click on the link to visit your site.
  • The title tag on your Web site’s home page should reflect all of the content on your entire site. The title tags on internal pages should reflect the content on those pages or sections. Again, to realize fully the gains of optimizing your title tags, you should have the words in your title tags also appear in the body of the text for their respective pages.

    • Keywords in Body Text

    The “body text” of a Web page is the text that is placed between the tags, and is the content users see when reading the Web page. The area of text between the body tags is the only other place, aside from title tags, that search engines consistently spider. Search engines may or may not spider text in other tags (e.g., tags).

    Thus, it is important always to include keywords and keyword phrases in the body text, or core content, of your Web pages. You should note the following when building keywords into the text between tags:

    When ranking Web pages, search engines give more weight to words located at the top of a page (with HTML this is content that appears “above the fold,” i.e., on the initial screen view a user sees of a Web page). To get more unique content to the top of a Web page, you should consider using XHTML to place the navigational text lower in the XHTML source code. If you use HTML, try moving the navigational elements of the Web page from the top or left-hand side of the page to the bottom or right-hand side of the page. Navigation links that appear on the bottom and right side of a page will be at the bottom of the HTML code, and will not take up valuable space at the top of the page.

    If you are going to use JavaScript or style sheets on your Web pages, place them in an external file rather than at the top of the Web page’s HTML coding. As noted above, this will help you get more unique content at the top of your Web pages.

    Words that are in heading tags

    ,

    or in larger fonts are also given extra weight by search engines. Most search engines will compare the size of the text for a particular word to the size of the majority of text on a page. Thus, words that have font size=3 when the all of the other text is font size=1 are likely to be weighted more heavily, while words having font size=3 when the rest of the text is also font size=3 are not going to be given additional weight.

    Words that are included in links (i.e., within tags) are also more heavily weighted by search engines. Thus, it is better to include descriptive terms in the internal links app
    earing on your web site. To increase the density of keywords on a Web page, you can include a statement on the bottom of every page that describes your Web site or gives the user information on how to contact you.

    To ensure keyword prominence, try to include keywords in a heading or headline that summarizes the page’s content, at the top of a page. The first lines of the first paragraph, or the first few descriptive sentences (if you aren’t writing in paragraphs) below the heading of a Web page should also have keywords located within them, which summarize the main contents of the page.

    Using Keywords in Image Alt Tags

    Image Alt tags are used to describe graphic images on a Web page. These tags contain text, which appears when images are not loaded on the page and thus do not appear on screen. With some Web browsers, this text will also appear when the cursor is placed over an image. Search engine crawlers rely on Alt tags to ascertain what graphics you have on your page. Placing keywords in Alt tags, when they appropriately describe a specific graphic, can add to your search engine visibility and ranking.

    Note: Alt tag text is also used by Web readers and other software programs for disabled users. Web readers help users with disabilities, such as those who are blind, easily read pages on the Internet by translating the contents of a Web page into Braille or speech. Because someone who is not loading graphics or who is seeing impaired cannot see the graphics on your page, the text within an Alt tag acts as a descriptor. For this reason, it is always a good idea to use Alt text for images on your Web pages.

    Meta Tags

    Meta tags () are HTML tags located between the tags at the top of a Web page, which contain information regarding the content of that page. One of the biggest misconceptions about Web site optimization is that Meta tags and the text you place in them hold the key to effective SEO. In fact, most search engines place little weight on words placed in Meta tags when creating their relevancy rankings. This does not mean that you should ignore thinking about the text you place in Meta tags, but you should be aware that they play only a small part in search engine optimization.

    There are two types of Meta tags worth adding to your Web pages. The Meta description tag and the Meta keywords tag.

    Meta Description Tag

    The text in a Meta description tag should be a description of the content on a page, not a keyword list. As with the text in your title tags, you should avoid filler words in Meta tags. Also, it is best to limit your description to 50 words, making sure to include your four or five most important keywords at the beginning. Here are some other things to consider when writing your Meta tag descriptions:

    • The text in your Meta tags should not be exactly the same as the text in your title tags. Search engine crawlers can detect this, and may consider you a spammer if those tags contain identical keywords.
    • Place your most important keywords at the beginning of your Meta tag description.
    • When appropriate, use singular and plural versions of your keywords in Meta tags.
    • Keep the repetition of words to a minimum. Do not put the same words next to each other.
    • Make sure your Meta tag descriptions contain long phrases or sentences.
    • Always add a call to action at the end of your description. If/when a specific Meta tag description like that is listed in search engine results, it improves the chance that a user will click on to your site.
    • Think carefully about using common misspellings of your keywords in your Meta tags. If the misspelled word doesn’t appear within the text of a page, this is generally considered a waste of time.

    Meta Keyword Tag

    This tag is ignored by Google and is given little weight by the other search engines. Nonetheless, you still might want to consider including some terms describing your practice in this tag.

    Meta Revisit and Meta Follow Tags

    Certain Web pages contain “revisit” and “robots-follow” tags, which some people believe will instruct search engine spiders to revisit and index their Web pages within a specified time period. Using these tags in your Web pages (e.g., or ) will not impact search engine-indexing of your site in any way. A search engine will not determine when it will re-index your Web site based on a Meta tag in your Web site.

    Note: Some search engines will not index a page that has but some will. If you do not want a page indexed, it is best to use the robots.txt file to exclude the page.

    Additional Page Elements

    Image Maps

    An image map is a graphic image that allows an Internet user to access different pages on a Web site by clicking on different parts of the image. Most search engines will not follow links placed in image maps. So, if you are going to use an image map, it is best to have text links to the different areas of your site on your Web pages as well. Ideally, all of the text links to your site’s different areas would be included on the page containing the image map but, if desired from a design perspective; one text link could be placed at the bottom of that page, linking to a page with a list of text links to the different areas of your site. This will also help those users who are not loading graphics find the content they seek.

    JavaScript Menus and Drop-Down Menus

    Major search engines do not follow many links embedded in JavaScript, e.g., navigation menus, mouse overs, etc. Search engines also do not follow the links in drop-down menus. Therefore, just as with image maps, it is important to have text links that also list the drop-down choices, so that search engines will follow them and index your entire site.

    At a minimum, you should have a single text link that takes users to a Web page that gives them the full set of choices in the JavaScript or drop-down, menu with direct text links.

    Frames

    Some search engines follow links in frames, others do not. For those search engines that do not use Meta-tag content or the tag in determining relevancy, the only content a spider will detect on a framed page will be the title-tag text.

    You should use the tag when using frames. This will allow spiders to follow an alternate route through the Web site. But note that some search engines will not follow tags because of their use in spamming. Therefore, if you do use frames on your site, it is important to also have navigation links in the main content frame and at the bottom of every page on your site.

    We do not recommend that companies use frames in any circumstance.

    Home Page Optimization: Re-Directs, Flash and Large Images

    Redirects (i.e., links that are automatically re-directed to another URL) are bad from a search engine optimization perspective. A search engine may think that you are trying to spam it with a page that will never be seen. When at all possible, avoid using redirects. Redirects are sometimes done on the server side, and sometimes done with the Meta refresh tag.

    Using a splash page with a Flash plug-in or a large image for your home page might look nice, but may have a detrimental impact on your site’s search engine ranking. It is especially detrimental to have a home page that contains only Flash, or that has an image with an image map with no accompanying alt text. With a non-text splash page layout, you run the risk that nothing on your site will be indexed. In addition, flash and large images take quite a long time to download, and many users will not stay on your site long enough for this to happen. Studies show that most users will not wa
    it for more than 10 seconds for a page to load before moving on to another site. Thus, if you use slow-loading plug-ins or images on your home page, you run the risk that your users will never see the content that is relevant to their search.

    Your home page is the most important page of your site, and it should contain rich keyword content. All of your key product or services should be listed on the home page. Other important features and content should also be listed and linked.

    If you want to have a large Flash presentation for a splash/home page, a possible workaround is to have a home page without Flash, but with a link to the Flash presentation for those users with high bandwidth and/or who have browsers that can easily load it.

    The key to having Web pages well-indexed by search engines is richBusiness Management Articles, text-based content. Placing keywords that represent this content in the


    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Andrew Allfrey is Business Devlopment Director and Senior Consultant at e-Prominence Limited a specialist ethical search engine optimization and pay per click services company based in Scotland, United Kingdom.

    To discuss any of your search engine marketing requirements please visit www.e-prominence.co.uk or email us.

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